When the cool breeze takes your hair
and the ripples sweep through the lake,
Where the dead trees of forgotten valley
emerge like ghosts from the water stretch,
Itís fun to paddle in bamboo rafts
to see a small Elephant run behind its mother safe,
Itís thrilling,
if you are there to meet a Leopard in itís den,
To remould yourself Ö
To run away from your destiny Ö
...far into the rain forests Ö..

The programme
This is a dawn to dusk range hiking and rafting programme through
some of the richest forest tracts of Periyar Tiger Reserve. Starting
at 8 am from the boat landing, a mosaic of habitats will be traversed
before the party gets into rafts made of bamboos.

The forests are rich in bird life and arboreal animals like giant
squirrel and Nilgiri langur. The rafting is for about three hours
and one gets a panoramic view of forest-clad hills reflected on
the lake. Animals like elephant, gaur and sambar are sighted keeping
close to the edges of the lake.

The team hitchhikes back to the boat landing by about 5 pm. An
armed guard and 4 guides will accompany a maximum of 10 tourists.
Tea, snacks and packed lunch will be served enroute.